The Final Journey
by Famous Fault
Summary: Lennart, penny and Sheldon watched the struggle of the survivors. The world was once again covered in light, but it did not reach many hearts. The sorrow weighed heavy as they rebuild their lost homes. The last journey before peace could once more reign the land.
1. Stranded In Time

This is so amazing, and also; not a one-shot. I have once again done something stupid.

To make things even more awesome, it is completely untested ground.

* * *

"I don't even think I dare asking, but what are you guys up to?" Penny asked with a forced smile as Lennart and Sheldon most carefully carried some sort of device up the stairs.

"It's a time machine", Sheldon explained before Lennart could stop him.

"Again?" Penny asked skeptical and eyed the device. At least this one was smaller than the last one they had gotten. It was round and judging from the stance of the two scientists rather heavy, even though it was quite thin.

"Penny, can you open the door please?" Lennart asked and nodded at his pocket where the keys were.

"Fine", Penny sighed and took the keys before opening the door, "here you go guys." She watched as Lennart and Sheldon most carefully tilted the round plate and carried it through the door. Then they stood rather forlorn in their living room.

"I'll clear the table", Penny said and removed the few things on the coffee table and put them on the sideboard instead.

"I'm not sure the table is strong enough to hold this …" Lennart started as Penny cleared the table, but before he could finish Sheldon interrupted him. "It will hold, Lennart, because …"

"Never mind, let's just put it down", Lennart said quickly, in his turn interrupting Sheldon. Carefully they put the heavy thing down.

"Is this … stone?" Penny asked incredulous when she examined the object closer.

"Yes", Sheldon confirmed, "we are going to dismantle it. It was used for time traveling thousands of years ago … at least that's what the story says. Of course, it didn't work. But it will be interesting to see how the less developed minds from before the modern era thought they could achieve time traveling."

"So you're going to learn from their mistakes?" Penny said with another forced smile. Lennart laughed a bit, but Sheldon missed the joke. "No! Silly Penny, everyone know one can't time travel with a piece of rock. It's a mere anthropological interest."

Penny merely smiled.

"But we are going to test it first!" Sheldon added eagerly and looked at Penny, "Want to come?"

"Eh, nhe … Oh, what the hell, why not?" she said and made a dejected gesture. "How does it work?"

"It seems pretty simple", Sheldon said, "you see these hand prints? We simply put our left hand on them and set a date."

There were three natural hand prints in the stone, of the sort one would get if one put a hand in soft concrete and then allowed it to dry. Sheldon and Lennart put their left hand on a hand print each. "What makes you think it is your left hand?" Penny asked, simply to mock Sheldon. "Couldn't it be your right hand, but the back of it?"

"No, Penny, I am sure it is our left hand", Sheldon stated unamused.

"Whatever", Penny sighed and put her hand on the last available spot. "So how do we set the date?"

Lennart looked at Sheldon, back at Penny and then back at Sheldon again before admitting it: "We don't know."

"You don't know?" Penny repeated, a bad feeling starting to grow in her stomach.

"Well, actually Lennart's statement is incorrect", Sheldon said, "we do know how to set the date, we just don't know what date we are setting." Sheldon made a gesture at the small holes in the center of the stone with little colored pins in them. "That is used to set the date, we just don't know which holes represent what."

"Can I set the date?" Penny asked immediately. Now that they didn't know what date they would pretend to travel to anyway neither Sheldon nor Lennart could request a specific date and therefore she might just as well. Without waiting for answer she rearranged the small red pins so that it looked like a smiley.

Sheldon was about to protest, but Lennart silenced him. "Just let her."

"But guys", Penny said, a new thought shooting to mind, "if this thing is that old then shouldn't you give it to a museum or so? Is it really okay to have it here?"

"The stone was given to Caltech by someone who found it. Caltech ran a wide variety of harmless tests on it and …" Lennart fell silent.

"And what?" Penny asked when she noticed Sheldon was displaying the nervous, uncontrolled behavior he always did when either lying or keeping a secret.

"Well, the C14 didn't give any results", Lennart confessed.

"Isn't that the test that determines how old an object is?" Penny asked confused, "How can it not give any results?"

"Very good, Penny", Sheldon said, sounding impressed, earning an unamused glare from his neighbor. "Technically speaking it is impossible for the C14 test not to give results, but when they tested it one this time machine it didn't give any."

"So what does that mean?" Penny asked while Lennart desperately tried to make Sheldon shut up.

"It means", Sheldon said, speaking very fast, indicating he was saying something he really shouldn't, "that NASA thought it was alien and ordered it to be destroyed! And you don't know Lennart and I saved it!" He looked away in some sort of shameful manner.

Penny gawked, but did not withdraw her hand. "This thing could be alien!"

"Yes", Lennart said, covering his eyes with his right hand. "Please, don't tell anyone."

Penny shook her head, speechless, her eyes bulging. Then she shook her head again, to recover herself. "So … are you still going to test it?"

"Of course!" Sheldon said. "Everyone ready?"

"Sure", Penny said and when Lennart too gave his confirmation Sheldon pushed the one pin that could not be moved, the one in the very center, making out the nose of Penny's smiley.

* * *

At least they landed softly, but that really was the only positive factor in whatever had happened. Penny found herself with a bleeding left hand somewhere in something that seemed to be a dessert. She had landed flat on her back and was staring at a truly blue sky. It was so incredibly hot.

Wherever they were, it wasn't Pasadena anymore. California had hot days, but not like this, this feeling as if ones skin was on fire. She jumped to her feet when she noticed that the main reason that she felt as if she was on fire was the sand on her bare skin.

Her sandals could not keep the sand away from her feet, but it was some sort of relief not to have it all over her body. She looked around and located Lennart's unconscious form a bit further away. She walked over to him and did his best to shake him awake.

"It's no use", Sheldon said, "he hit his head. He will wake up in time. I believe he has a concussion, the fall must have caused enough rotational damage to the brain to make it severe enough for Lennart to, as people put it, pass out."

Sheldon was standing on the edge of a cliff, looking at the horizon. He had however turned to face Penny when he noticed she had awoken.

"And that doesn't worry you?" Penny asked.

"Well, yes, Lennart is my friend. But if I were to compare Lennart's concussion to the issue of where we have stranded Lennart's concussion is not very troublesome. It will pass. The question as how to get back home is consistent to the point that we actually get home, Lennart's condition is not", Sheldon said.

"Where are we?" Penny asked, not sure she wanted to know the answer. Australia? Southern North America? Africa? The Middle East? There were desserts in all those places. But perhaps most importantly, what time had they stranded in?

"I fear", Sheldon said, "that we are in Ancient Egypt."

"Ancient Egypt!" Penny called out shocked. "With the pyramids and the sphinx and all that?"

"No", Sheldon said and pointed at a spot behind Penny. She turned around and looked at a spot that looked just like the rest of the dessert surrounding to her. "We have arrived in the beginning of the Old Kingdom, or possibly before it, in the Early Dynastic Period."

"How can you tell?" Penny asked, still looking at the point Sheldon was pointing at.

"Because that is where the Pyramid of Giza and the Great Sphinx of Giza will be build. We are standing on the plateau of Giza and down there …" he pointed downwards, " … is the city of Memphis. Capital city of Ancient Egypt."

"You're joking, right?" Penny asked and once again looked at the spot where supposedly the Pyramid of Giza should have been standing had they been in their time.

"Of course not, why would I joke about something like that? We are standing on the Giza Plateau looking out over the capital city of Ancient Egypt. Probably around three thousand BC."

"Have we gone back in time five thousand years?" Penny asked again, incredulous. This could not be happening to her. Least of all with Sheldon Cooper and Leonard Hofstadter. Slowly she approached Sheldon to see if there really was an Ancient Egyptian town beneath them.

"Yes!" Sheldon said, suddenly energetic. "There is not really that much recorded of the Early Dynastic Period. Modern Egyptology can hazard a guess out of the little material it has got, but this is an opportunity!"

"I think dangerous as hell is more appropriate!" Penny hissed and came to stand next to Sheldon. Indeed, underneath them stretched a city that was not of modern times but it didn't quite look like she had expected.

It was a battlefield.

Or more accurately, it was what is left after a battlefield. The first thing she noticed was the palace, what was left of it that was. It had crumbled, as if a giant had smashed it repeatedly and it could no longer find the strength to stand. What once had been, tall and strong sandy walls were now mere rocks on the ground. The major part of the city was in no better shape, from some houses smoke was rising in thick pillars from recently extinguished fires. The ground looked as if it had been tormented by an earthquake.

She swallowed. Ancient Egypt was stretched out in front of her, battered with people walking everywhere, trying to restore their homes, find their loved ones in the rubble. What had happened here? What could have done this to the proud capital city of Memphis?

"What do we do now?" she asked. Why had she ever went along with the idea of trying an alien time machine?

"Get out of the sun", Sheldon said and glared at the sky. "If we stay here too long we'll get severely burned."

"And where would we go? The town?" Penny asked condescending.

"No!" Sheldon said, sounding affronted. "The townspeople would kill us. These people are not used to strangers. There is no limit to what horrible and painful methods they could find to kill us, especially now that they have been plunged into despair that comes with loosing their home!"

"Then where else?" Penny asked, "I don't really see any place to stay."

"There should be caves a bit further into the dessert. A sort of canyon. We can hide there and wait for Lennart to wake up, then we can figure out what to do. Help me carry him."

Sheldon took the lead and together he and Penny carried him further into the dessert. It felt odd to walk further into the dessert, all her instincts were screaming at her to get out of it. Naturally that was foolish, like Sheldon had said, they would be killed. But truth be told, Penny did not see much more of a chance in the dessert.

Only ten minutes into the walk and Penny was starting to feel exhausted. The sand did not make for a nice ground to walk on, Lennart was starting to get heavy and the sun was making her sweat far more liquid than her body could spare. Sheldon wasn't in a much better condition.

"How much further?" Penny asked, being unable to see past Sheldon.

"Hard to tell", was all Sheldon said, "I am not familiar with the Sahara."

Penny muttered something under her breath and wondered how the Egyptians could live on sandals. The sand was starting to leave permanent marks on her feet that were starting to hurt. Sheldon, who was wearing sneakers and socks, was better of.

They had walked for at least half an hour when Sheldon at last exclaimed: "Look. A cave!"

The ground mercifully turned to rock instead of sand and Penny used the opportunity to stop and remove the sand from her sandals. To her dismay she noticed that her feet were bleeding. She did however soon forget that thought when she saw the way towards the cave.

"Sheldon! You can't be serious!" she exclaimed. The road in front of her was madness. It was a small ridge against a cliff wall that led into a cave. At some parts the road was too narrow for two people to stand next to each other. One faulty step and they would plummet many meters to their untimely death.

"Penny, it is either that or slow death by dehydration filled with hallucinations and madness", Sheldon said, "If we reach the cave we may be able to figure out what to do now."

"Travel back to the U.S", Penny said sarcastically.

Naturally Sheldon didn't pick that up. "Silly Penny. It is not even certain if there was life in North America this far back in time. We have come to one of the few known civilizations from this time."

"What good will that do if they'll only kill us?" Penny asked sarcastically.

"None", Sheldon said, still failing to notice the sarcasm. "I suggest that one of us drags Lennart since that will make for less risk. Carrying such a heavy load makes one unstable, dragging it will be safer for all of us."

"You go first", Penny said and crossed her arms.

"Then you drag Lennart", Sheldon retorted and before Penny could protest he was standing on the ridge and had started his journey towards the cave. Penny, knowing that Sheldon was fearful of heights, had to hand it to him; he was rather brave.

To her surprise he reached the cave without falling to his death. "It's fine!" he yelled at her, "just do it with your eyes closed!"

Penny gawked at him. What kind of suicidal undertaking was that? Had he really done it with his eyes closed? He really was completely insane. It was hardly news to Penny, but it was simply yet another unbelievable confirmation.

"Sorry", she told Lennart before grabbing his arms and dragging him onto the path. She did not close her eyes, instead she transfixed her eyes on the path, making sure not to look down. Her journey did not go half as fast as that of Sheldon, but Lennart was quite a weight. The ground was rough and she felt a bit sorry for him, he would be blue all over when he woke up. On the bright side he would not recall this hellish little bit of traveling.

She reached the cave in one piece and with a sigh of relief she dropped Lennart's arms and sat down. At least the cave was nice and cool. Now that she was out of the sun she noticed how thirsty she was.

"This is an unfortunate turn of events", Sheldon stated as he looked around.

"What makes you say that? Stuck in the dessert with no water somewhere in Ancient Egypt is the best thing I can imagine."

"What makes you say that? I would have preferred to be able to observe the people …" Sheldon said before it dawned on him that she had been sarcastic. "Oh, shoot." He walked around for a bit, trying to find an acceptable spot to sit on when he spotted something interesting. "Look, Penny, people!"

Penny opened her eyes. "What are you talking about? It's just you, me and Lennart here", she said, before she saw that Sheldon was right. A bit further into the cave, propped against a wall, was the unconscious form of someone who did belong in the time they had landed in.

Sheldon approached her carefully. Then he simply stared.

The young girl was dressed in a simple garment of cotton, but it was adorned with details in gold, which made quite clear that this girl wasn't a peasant. Next to her was a staff, which she was gripping slightly even though she was unconscious. She was dirty and covered in blood, it was hard to tell how she had gotten there.

Sheldon couldn't stop staring.

"What's wrong, Sheldon? Can't you see blood?" Penny asked with a grin.

"It is only my own blood I can't see", Sheldon said affronted.

"Then what's the problem?" Penny asked, still grinning.

"Don't you see, Penny? We are actually having contact with a person from one of the first civilizations known to man! It's incredible! These people made a working society actually not all that different from our own. The prosperity of mankind actually fell the further into the future we go. First it rises, then it plummets down to what was the horror of the middle ages." Sheldon was still staring. "These people made the first real civilization!"

Penny sighed. Truth be told, in any other circumstance, she probably would have loved to talk to someone from a different time. Not because she wanted to learn more history, but because it simply seemed awesome. "Let's just make sure she doesn't bleed to death first", she said and tore of part of the girl's dress to use as makeshift bandages.

As she applied them Sheldon commented on everything she did wrong, but when she told him to do it he started and went quiet. Though only after pointing out that disease was very common here and that here they couldn't actually do anything about it. Penny merely shrugged, if she was going to worry about disease now then she'd go insane.

When she was done she tended to Lennart, but there wasn't much she could do for him. Sheldon was entertaining himself with inspecting the girls staff. When Penny had put Lennart on the most comfortable patch of ground she could manage to find she returned to the girl, who was already starting to bleed through her bandages.

She recalled what Sheldon once had told her, that he kept bandages on him at all times, but that they were exclusively for him. Time to break his bubble, this girl would bleed to death without proper care.

"Sheldon, are you carrying those bandages with you?" Penny asked innocently.

"Naturally, in my pocket, as always", Sheldon said.

For a girl who had been raised in Omaha, Nebraska that was all the information she required. Before Sheldon even realized it his pockets were empty by Penny's quick fingers. She had opened the bandage before Sheldon had the chance to protest.

"Be a sweetheart and remove those old ones for me?" she asked with a smile as she saw Sheldon's horrified expression.

"I will do no such thing!" he protested angrily. "How could you steal my bandages! Those are for me!"

"Not now anymore", Penny said and put the clean bandages on her knee to keep them from coming in contact with the dirt and started to remove the old ones herself. Then she used the modern day bandages on the worst wounds. The result improved drastically.

New problems arose when the temperature started to give way. As the night approached, it dropped dramatically, to the point where it reached below zero as the sun seemed to set fire to everything else. Sheldon informed her that it was a completely normal that the temperature could variate by easily 50°C between day and night.

Penny, who was dressed for the warm Californian climate found herself once again at a disadvantage in the Sahara, but it wasn't quite as bad on her as one the native who had lost a lot of blood and could not afford to lose any more warmth, she was too cold already.

Penny did what she had learned, she dragged Lennart to where the girl was laying and propped him against her, hoping that his body warmth could keep her warm and she snuggled up next to the girl on the other side, hoping it would suffice to get them all through the night. She invited Sheldon as well, but he absolutely refused to come in such close proximity to other people.

"I'll take the first guard", he said instead and found a spot that was not completely against his nearly autistic demands on a place to sit.

"You do that", Penny said, too exhausted to care. She snuggled even closer to the foreign girl and was almost asleep when doing so. She fell into an uncomfortable slumber

* * *

DON'T expect frequent updates, it will be seen through to the end, but I actually have no time for this at all. Do review though, it motivates me, makes me feel guilty if I'm inactive for too long.


	2. The Morning After

Look, it's an update :)

* * *

Isis had spend her night in the quarters of the palace that had not been completely annihilated together with many others of the people who normally lived in the palace. After the war status had disappeared slightly and she had not had any objections to sleeping in the same quarters as the servants. It was a shame that the night following the destruction of their town was so cold, when no one had a place to stay anymore.

When she woke up that morning she saw the four people who shared the room with her were still fast asleep. Seto was sleeping alone on the floor, Isis did not recall him being there when she fell asleep. She and Mana, upon returning, had found three servant girls digging in the rubble, hoping to save the life of people who had gotten stuck there.

Isis had come to help at once. With her Necklace she had been able to locate where people were buried, making their work far more effective. They saved the lives of many soldiers who otherwise would have been lost. Whenever she found a person who was dead she told the girls and Mana that there was no one there, these young girls should not need to endure that trauma as well. Grown men and woman could take care of the dead, these girls had seen enough already.

When there was no one she, Mana or the girls could save anymore they made their way towards the remaining part of the castle where she told both Mana and the three servant girls to go to sleep. Then she had done her best to spot Seto. Ever since the Pharaoh had gone to find him and Akhnaden she had not received any visions of what was going on.

Now, as the morning dawned, she was glad to see that Seto was safe and seemingly unharmed.

It was only after noticing Seto's return that she saw that Mana was gone. She was fully awake at once? Where could Mana be? Had she woken up before Isis? That would be at first, not that anything as it normally was anymore. Outside the room she could hear people working, she stood up and left the others to their slumber.

She had to find the Pharaoh, had to make sure that he was alright. Naturally, he had to be, if Seto was so should he be. Her Millennium Necklace remained eerily silent though and no matter how hard she tried, nothing was shown to her.

Surviving soldiers and servants had started doing what she had told the girls not to. They had started to dig out the dead and clear the rubble away all together. No one had told them to, they just had. Wooden carts were being loaded with rubble and when they were filled they were dragged by four men. Isis didn't know where they left it so she decided to follow one cart discreetly. The four men dragged and pushed it for quite a bit before they toppled the contents outside the city on a growing mountain. The journey back towards the castle went a lot faster.

When they reached the castle again she was quite content with their work, but she also felt sorry for them. She decided to start bossing around, after all, she was one of the people in the castle with most authority, except for the Pharaoh that was.

She went to stand on a large rock that had not yet been cleared. "Everyone, listen! Gather every survivor in the palace here, all except the doctors, allow them to tend to the injured. Hurry!"

It took six minutes before she was sure she had the vast majority of the survivors in front of her, they all bowed. There were fewer than she had hoped and she sighed silently. "Stand up, people, stand up." They obeyed. "First, I will applaud your work. I admire your determination to rebuild our country. You fought well yesterday and you worked well today. Second, how many of you work in the stables?"

Perhaps thirty hands shot into the air, far fewer than it should be. This would hurt both her heart and her morale, but she had to remain strong.

"Where are the rest of you?" she asked, not unfriendly. Nobody dared answering. "Please, people, if we're going to rebuild this country we'll have to cooperate. We will all have to work hard, both you and me and if we want to succeed I need you to speak to me. Fear not!"

At last one of them gathered the courage to speak up. "Ten of them are left in the stables to tend to the wounded horses, about an equal amount are in the infirmary that was set up yesterday by Lord Seto's orders. The rest died when part of the stables collapsed. Twenty horses died and thirty two are wounded, though they will recover", he said. He had only just become an adult, seventeen summers old at most. His courage was admirable. "The stable master died as well."

Isis nodded. "Use the horses to pull the carts that are to remove the rubble. We need you all to be fit and can't have you wasting all your energy on pulling the carts." She wondered how many had slept that night. "I expect you to work, but the human body has limitations. Sleep if you must, don't destroy yourself. No more lives can be wasted!"

Some people dared to murmur surprised words to their neighbors. Isis knew she was discarding a lot of rules, loosening others a lot as well, but it had to be done. "How many of you work in the kitchen?" she asked and a fair amount of hands went up, it seemed that the servants working there had been lucky.

"What is the state of the kitchen?" she asked, expecting it to be fair.

A plump woman answered. "The entire kitchen is gone. Most of us survived because we were evacuating the food from the storage. Only one storage collapsed and we managed to save most of the food in it."

"Very well. I want you to make sure that everyone in this castle is given breakfast and dinner later on. Be frugal, we don't know how much damage the fields and the cattle have taken. As many of you as required on that job. I want the rest of you to go to town and make sure the townspeople are fed as well. If you have to, take from the royal storage, especially water is important, make sure everyone drinks", she ordered. Although it was not within her authority to tell what happened with the food, she knew that the Pharaoh wouldn't mind if she used it to feed the people who had lost everything.

"I want the soldiers to clear the rubble, some of you should go to town as well, to help there. Send some of the doctors there as well. Treat even the poorest of people with respect, in a time like this we have no time for bullying, understood? Everyone with no specific tasks makes themselves useful, either here or in town. People are scared and traumatized, you are probably scared and traumatized. Take care of each other, be compassionate and kind, be strong. An era of peace lies ahead, rebuilding our country is the last obstacle to that era. Take care of the young, the old and the grieving. We all lost friends and family yesterday but we can only honor their memory by making sure their sacrifice didn't go to waste! Now, to work!"

People scattered quickly, eager to rebuild everything they had lost. She wandered around, observing the work, answering the questions of those who dared to ask and giving advice where she deemed it necessary. Sometimes she asked someone if they had seen either Mana or the Pharaoh. No one could answer her.

When her search seemed futile she returned to the place where she had slept. The three servant girls had gone and Seto was still asleep. She was torn, she desperately wanted to wake him up and get some answers, but at the same time she didn't want to refuse him any sleep either.

When his sleep turned restless and was consumed by the demons of rest she decided to awaken him. There was no point in being tortured by dreams when the worst was over.

"Isis?" he whispered confused when he started to return to the realm of the awake.

"I'm glad to see you're unharmed", she said, praying he would not prove her wrong.

"Not one of us is unharmed", he whispered as he stood up.

"What do you mean?" Isis asked alarmed.

"The Pharaoh is gone", Seto said and looked at the ground. He held out something to Isis, in his hands many small golden pieces were lying. On top was the center piece of the Millennium Puzzle. The Millennium Puzzle was in bits.

"He sealed him away. He sealed Zorc Necrophades away. The evil god and the Dark Priest are gone but the Pharaoh wasn't strong enough to destroy them."

"Seto! What happened?" Isis asked, feeling the world crumble around her.

"He had no power left, yet he came after me. He locked his soul and that of Zorc Necrophades into the puzzle, which shattered. He sacrificed his own life to save Egypt, to save all of us. He's gone, Isis."

Isis fell the strength being drained out of her. She fell to her knees, crying, she who was always so composed.

"There is more", Seto said. "Akhnaden, the priest of darkness, was my father and the brother of the late Pharaoh Aknemkanon. He created the Millennium items using human sacrifice."

Isis had heard this before. She had heard the evil god speak to Akhnaden when he had been resurrected. But hearing it in the heat of battle and hearing it when everything had died down were two completely different things.

"You're the Pharaoh's cousin", Isis whispered when she realized that.

Seto nodded. "The light that reaches this land, Ra smiling down on us, it does not warm my heart. It is frozen with the loss of my cousin and that of my love. I must remain strong though, there is a lot we must do, we must rebuild Egypt."

"Yes, we must. In the name of Pharaoh A …"

"No, Isis. You can't speak his name anymore. His name must be wiped from history!" Seto called out hastily.

"Seto! How can we refuse him his name? How can you, after what he did?" Isis said, seething, she had not expected this from Seto. For all his faults, this wasn't one she had encountered before.

"You don't understand, Isis, it were his orders. He used his name to seal the darkness away. If the name is known it can be used to unleash it."

"How could he do that to himself?" Isis asked horrified. "After everything he's done we are to forget about him? How are we going to tell everyone? How am I going to tell Mana? We can't even tell people the truth! How can it be just us left?"

"We can tell them part of the truth. Their Pharaoh died saving them all from this darkness, we don't have to tell them how he did it", Seto said, "and you don't have to tell Mana, I already did. When I came back last night she wouldn't leave me alone until I told her what had happened."

"Lord Seto!" Isis called out, a whole new sort of horror in her voice, "how could you? How much does she know?"

Seto looked at his hands where he held the small pieces of what once had been the Millennium Pendant. "She knows about this. She knows that he maimed his soul to protect us and that it might never find peace."

"Mana proved her worth in battle, but she's still a little girl that acts before she thinks! It's always been Mahad and the Pharaoh who've kept her from serious harm and now she has lost both! She didn't loose a king or a teacher, she lost her two best friends! Who knows what she might have done?!"

Seto looked appropriately ashamed. He had never really cared for Mana, but Isis was right, the young apprentice had proven her worth and he should have taken more consideration to her. He regretted that he had told her like he had. He knew what it was like to loose a loved one and it was a heavy burden to bear.

"We have to find her at once!" Isis said and quickly walked out the room. The people outside did not take notice of her, mostly because she had told them to earlier. The circumstances made them feel more at ease with the High Priestess than they normally would have been. The positive side of such a horrible event was that people would grow closer to each other, with a little luck. Though when she spoke they all listened at once.

Soon she had gathered a search party, one half went into the desert, the others searched the city and the palace. Isis prayed her intuition was wrong and that nothing bad had happened to Mana. The Millennium Necklace remained silent.

* * *

When Penny woke up the temperature had risen again and the first rays of sunlight were forcing their way into the cave. Sheldon was sitting in the exact same spot as when Penny had fallen asleep with his eyes wide open, forcing himself to stay awake.

"Sheldon, why didn't you wake me?" Penny asked, although secretly she was glad she had been allowed to sleep, no matter how uncomfortable it had been.

"Because I have no faith in you acting appropriately were something to happen", Sheldon said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Right", Penny sighed and decided not to comment further. Instead she turned to the girl to make sure she was still alive, she was, but her breathing was shallow and her heart rate too slow. "If we don't get this girl any help she'll die", she stated instead. "She needs help."

"Penny, they'll kill us!" Sheldon protested. "Look at how we're dressed, we can't even speak their language."

"We'll use sign language", Penny said instead. She knew that Sheldon's worries were legit but she didn't want to let this girl die and there was a fair chance that they themselves would die anyway if they stayed in the cave. They couldn't cross the desert.

"Do you know sign language?" Sheldon asked, sounding surprised and impressed.

"Sure", Penny said. Then, looking at Sheldon, she asked: "Are you going to faint or do you have the strength to stay awake for a prolonged amount of time."

"You aren't really thinking of going into town, are you?" Sheldon asked, almost begging.

"Sheldon, I don't want to die in this cave and I don't want to share it with her dead body", she said. "If I have to I'll go alone, I'll drag both Lennart and her with me. I'm going, what you do is your choice."

"I'm not going to get myself killed by ancient Egyptians!" Sheldon protested and turned away from her.

Penny sighed, but she had expected it. Carefully she took hold of the girl, she couldn't risk carrying her over the ridge but she didn't really want to drag someone so badly injured over the rocks either. She did however not have a choice and slowly she dragged the girl up towards the plateau, pushing away rougher rocks with her feet. Her dragging Lennart earlier had cleared the worst so all by all, the unknown girl got of pretty well. When penny reached the end she put the girl on the plateau in the recovery position before turning around to go get Lennart.

Sheldon did not look happy when she returned. "You can't take Lennart", he said.

"Why not?" Penny asked as she rearranged Lennart so he would be easier to drag.

"Because then I'll be alone. I don't want to be alone", he explained. "Normally I want to be alone, not right now."

"If you don't come along you'll be alone, Sheldon, either you deal with it or come with me. You already know what I feel about staying in this cave. I'm going to the city before it becomes too warm." Without any further words she started dragging Lennart out of the cave and up the path.

She wasn't even halfway when she heard Sheldon behind her. "Wait! I'll come."

Penny smiled. Just as she had expected.

In silence they continued on their trip. Both concentrating on not falling to their death or fainting by fear of heights. It went slowly, but it went and that was the main point. Lennart was heavier than the girl and she wondered if perhaps she should have taken Lennart first.

"Are we there yet?" Sheldon asked suddenly.

"What do you mean?" Penny asked before realizing how he had done it last time. "Do you have your eyes closed again?"

"Yes. I'm pretending I'm merely walking over a common street. If not I'll succumb to my fear of heights and faint. I don't want that either."

Penny sighed. "A little further. I'll tell you when you're there, alright."

"Alright", Sheldon repeated and went silent again.

Penny had perhaps five steps left when she heard an unfamiliar voice yell something. Then a different voice yelled the same thing. "Mana!" another three different voices called out. Then there was the faint sound of hooves, just one set.

Penny looked up, already able to see over the edge of the plateau. She counted seventeen human figures against the horizon and she didn't have to be educated in Egyptology to know that these men were soldiers.

"Mana!" they called out repeatedly. It was obvious that they were looking for someone. No one would call out a single word like that repeatedly yet at random if it weren't so. Some things were the same in every language.

Sheldon, who also had heard the soldiers had stopped walking. "Penny, I think we should go back and hide."

"Of course not", Penny said. "These soldiers are looking for someone, and judging from her status, it's probably the girl we took care of." Without saying anything else she let go of Lennart and quickly took the last few steps up to the plateau and went to stand next to the girl.

The soldiers spotted her at once but she started waving with her arms nonetheless. Without further ado one of the soldiers got on the horse and galloped towards her. He was there within seconds. He had a spear in his hands, ready if she showed any sign of hostility, but he lowered it when he saw that she was female.

He dropped it completely when he saw who was laying next to her. He turned and yelled something at the men he had left behind who cheered and made haste towards them at once.

He kneed down next to the girl and looked shocked and angry when he saw in what state she was. Angrily he turned to Penny and started asking her questions at quick pace. To her surprise she understood every word. What the hell?

"Who are you? Did you do this? Are you alone? What were you doing out here? Where are you from?" he asked, that and a lot more.

"I …", she stuttered, still trying to figure out how it came she could understand what the soldier said. "I found her, we found her. I have companions, they are on their way." She could tell by herself that her words weren't English at all, but it felt just as easy to speak it.

The moment he heard she wasn't alone he picked up his spear again. "With whom are you traveling? Where did you find her?"

The other soldiers arrived and one immediately took care of the girl, ignoring everything and everyone else. The others seemed to wait for an order or an explanation from the one in charge, the one talking with her.

"With Lennart and Sheldon", she said, still too baffled to answer anything but the truth. "We found her down there, in the cave. She was injured when we got to her, so I took care of her to the best of my abilities."

"Where are they?" the soldier asked, referring to Sheldon and Lennart.

"They're on their way here", she said. She was certain Sheldon wasn't happy with her, but now he was forced to move out into the open, instead of just hiding on the narrow path.

The moment Sheldon set foot on the plateau he was surrounded by four men who were all pointing their spears at him. A different soldier took Lennart from him and Sheldon let him, instead he raised his hands.

"What happened to him?" the soldier asked, indicating Lennart.

"He hit his head. He's got a concussion", Penny explained simply. To her surprise the soldier seemed to know what she was talking about.

"We'll take care of him too. Thebes, how's Mana?" the soldier asked and turned to the doctor amongst the soldiers.

"She needs proper care at once, but I think she'll survive. I don't know what magic these strangers used, but it saved her life", he proclaimed amazed.

"Are you magicians?" the chief asked. Sheldon looked alarmed at once and the soldiers saw it. "Why so alarmed? You wouldn't be the first magician to get lost in this desert."

"They're scientists", Penny said, before Sheldon could say anything stupid. "It's a bit like magic and it's how we ended up here. Were not from here at all. I'm not a scientist, I just ended up here with them."

"You feared we'd judge you, that's why you went into the desert", the chief soldier said. "I understand. May I ask where you come from?"

"We're from were the sun sets. Across this desert, over the ocean and then across the country", Penny explained. The chance of any of them having been there was close to zero and she was fairly sure they could blame everything odd about them on the distance.

"We should move", the doctor said when they had put both Lennart and Mana on the cart and fastened the horse in front of it.

"Naturally. Let's go", the chief said, he took the front, accompanied by Sheldon and Penny, followed by the rest of the soldiers in two rows. It was somewhat chaotic for a country with an army as advanced as that of the ancient Egyptians. There was something extremely forlorn over all of them.

"How are you related? A woman doesn't normally travel with two men", the soldier asked with sincere concern.

Penny chuckled humorless. She supposed that lying in this scenario might be the best approach. After all, their values were quite different from the ones she was used to. "I'm betrothed to Lennart", she lied and had to give Sheldon a warning glance to keep him from protesting. "Sheldon is his partner in science. They work together. Something went wrong and I was drawn with them."

"Doesn't he speak?" the soldier asked and looked at Sheldon, even though he had asked Penny.

"He speaks", she said, "but he's not very good with people. The situation tends to be more peaceful when he keeps silent."

Sheldon glared at her and she merely smiled at him. Sheldon decided that he too should be allowed to ask his questions and more importantly, share his opinions.

"Excuse me", he said, "your army looks quite disappointing. How do you expect to be effective when you don't keep your men under strict order."

Penny could have killed him. Insulting the person who had been kind to them, instead of killing them? Was he absolutely insane? Naturally, Penny already knew the answer to that. She opened her mouth to apologize, but the soldier was quicker.

"We're not an army. After yesterdays events many soldiers have been killed, the army, and everything else for that matter, is in complete disarray. The High Priestess told me to go look for Mana, so I gathered the people who were most familiar with the desert. I'm actually a regular foot soldier."

"Ah, selective leadership", Sheldon said. "In a group without appointed leader the most competent will take a step forth. That's why I'm always the leader back home."

Penny sighed and shook her head, but the soldier smiled amused, although a bit confused. "What happened?" Penny asked, the conversation distracting her from the pain in her feet and the sun burning down on her.

"An evil god was unleashed. I don't know exactly what happened, only the Pharaoh and the priests do, perhaps Mana", he said. "I only know that Thief King Bakura had something to do with it. A notorious tomb robber, I just don't know how it's all connected precisely. I only know that many soldiers died in the last battle, he destroyed the city and killed many men, soldiers as well as civilians."

Sheldon opened his mouth to proclaim that there was no such thing as an evil god when Penny elbowed him in the ribs. She suddenly wished she could speak Klingon, then she'd have been able to tell him exactly why he shouldn't say that without the others understanding her.

Some of the soldiers sniggered at the display of violence but Sheldon wasn't amused. "But Penny …"

"You believe in parallel universes!" Penny hissed under her breath.

Sheldon stopped dead in his tracks, making the soldier behind him run into him. "You really think that …"

"Perhaps! Now walk and listen", she hissed.

The soldier shook his head, still amused. The strangers didn't know that most other leaders would have had them skewered, assuming that they had been responsible for what had happened to Mana. They had been lucky. Though he supposed that with the war at an end most people didn't have the energy for more death and destruction, at the other hand, they would also be rather distrusting. No matter how you looked at it, they could be happy it had been him who had found them.

He had often followed Mahad to go find Mana whenever her magic had failed her, or she had failed her magic, therefore it was no surprise to him that other magicians, or scientists, would by mistake end up in the desert as well.

He had been there when Master Mahad's Ka had appeared on the stone tablet, a sign of his death. He told the strangers about that as well, how Master Mahad had given his life.

"We're all tired. Tired of death, tired of seeing everything we've worked fall to pieces, not to mention tired of loosing the ones we love. I have a family, I've not yet been able to find out if they survived or not. Many of us are missing loved ones and many of us have seen loved ones being placed among the dead. We're a tired nation, but I take some hope in knowing that once we rebuild, we can finally live at peace."

"I'm so sorry", Penny said, "I hope your family is alright."

"So do I", the soldier said and he turned to smile at her and Sheldon. "What about your family?"

"They're probably fine", Sheldon said. "It'll take a while, but once they find out that we're missing mom will start praying to the Lord to bring us back home. Not that it'll help."

"Our families will be fine", Penny said. "Where we're from people have to fend for themselves, without relying on their family or neighbors. They'll miss us, but they don't need us."

"Even your children?" the soldier asked with a comical facial expression that clearly indicated that he didn't understand how it could be possible.

"We don't have children", Penny answered.

"Me neither", Sheldon said.

The confusion only increased. "Has Meskhenet been unkind to you?"

"Since Meskhenet is the goddess of childbirth I believe what he means to ask is if your genitals are unable to produce offspring, more commonly called, infertile", Sheldon explained, receiving an unamused glare from Penny.

"No! That's not it", Penny explained hastily, "It's uncommon for women where I come from to have children at a young age.

"You're not that young", the soldier said.

Penny was insulted by that statement and for once Sheldon picked up on it. "Considering that people here don't live quite as long as they do back home, you have long since passed what they consider to be young, it wasn't meant as an insult."

"Oh", was all Penny said.

The soldier was however interested by different things. "What do you mean, you live much longer? How long do people live where you're from?"

"There's an average of approximately eighty years, but some live as long as a hundred", Sheldon explained. "I mean, eighty summers, or however you count."

The soldiers who had heard it looked incredulous and expressed their wonder n whispered words. That was a very long time."

"How?" the soldier asked.

"Proper health care", Sheldon said and the doctor, who was still tending to Mana jumped in. "I don't know what these white things are, they remind of bandages, yet they're not. They're amazing, it's magic, the good kind."

Sheldon made a condescending noise. "It's not magic", he said, "all that is required is a basic understanding of the human anatomy. Wounds need air to heal, therefore one should make bandages that allow air to pass through but filter out all unwanted particles and protect from dirt."

"How?" the doctor asked.

Penny lost interested. "Unfortunately that were our last ones. We'll be glad to offer help to the wounded where we can, even though neither of us is a practiced doctor, it is common in our society to be able to help in acute emergencies and to understand the human body."

"That would be appreciated, thank you", the soldier said. "But I hope you understand that I must bring you before the High Priestess first, she'll decide what you can and can't do. Don't worry though, she is a reasonable person and wont judge you anymore than we do. Not to mention that you saved Mana's life."

As he spoke they finally reached the city. It looked even worse when up close. Houses were still smoking, people were clearing the rubble, children, men, women and soldiers all helped. Not seeming to care if it was their home they were clearing or not, nothing inside had survived anyway. It came Penny to mind how much priceless artwork had gone lost during this time, perhaps if this battle had never occurred people in their time would have known more about this era.

There was something sad over everyone and that was only to be expected, many cried as they worked. Some people were comforting others, old women where comforting the smallest children and tending to the babies. They told stories to distract them and Penny had half a mind to stop and listen, the short bits she picked up where fascinating.

But reality invaded. "Found one!" someone cried and at once over ten people were digging in the rubble. The person they dug out was unfortunately no longer alive, she was a woman perhaps a year or so younger than Penny was herself. Someone picked her up and carried her away, putting her in a row of other corpses.

"Daddy!" a small child suddenly called out and ran towards them. One of the soldiers at the rear of their procession reacted at once. He stopped and looked for the source of the sound, a second later he was attacked by a child who flung his arms around his neck.

"Thank Bes that you're alright. Where's your mother?" the soldier asked.

"I don't know", the child answered.

The one in charge approached the soldier with the child, momentarily abandoning Penny and Sheldon. "Go see to your family. You can do as much good here as in the palace."

"Thank you", the soldier said and lifted his child into a comforting hug.

When the soldier in charge returned he had a troubled look on his face. "Something is different", he said and several soldiers murmured their agreement.

"What do you mean?" Penny asked.

"When we left there was hope in the air. Certainly people were grieving, but there was hope. The hope is gone, it's been replaced by despair. I wonder what happened, I pray it's not what I fear", the soldier said and sighed. "You", he said and looked at the soldier behind Sheldon. "Go ask what's happened."

The soldier was back in less than a minute after having exchanged some words with a few other soldiers clearing rubble. When he returned he looked heartbroken. "The news just reached the city. The Pharaoh is dead."

* * *

I hope you enjoyed.

Review please


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